Victoria
by Isabella Raven
Summary: Raeyne Byrne had grown up the darling of the wizarding elite, and fell in love with the young and brilliant Severus Snape, but now the beautiful Death Eater is to determine his loyalty to the Dark Lord. What happens if he finds out her secrets?
1. Late Arrivals

Disclaimer: Draco, Snape, and company do not belong to me. I am only borrowing them, and will return them in much the same shape I borrowed them in. 

*** 

The students looked at the empty place beside Professor Snape as they shuffled in, wondering who their new DADA professor would be, and where the professor was. Whispered speculation made its way around the room as to why the new professor was absent, and what they would be like. In fact, the only one who seemed to be completely unconcerned about the absence of the professor, other than the headmaster was Professor Snape. Though perhaps unconcerned wasn't the appropriate word, so much as smugly gleeful, if one knew how to read his expression. 

The sorting ceremony passed, and the feast had begun with still no sign of the absent professor. The speculation was beginning to escalate when the doors to the great hall opened, slamming against the walls, and focusing all attention on the tall, dark figure who stood there, something perched on its shoulder. It stepped forward, to an indrawn breath from the student body, and pulled back the hood that hid its face, resolving into a black-eyed, black-haired woman with an incredibly cold expression on her face. The creature on her shoulder was a dragonet, as jet black as her clothing, its tail curled about its feet, yawning as it stood up, surveying the room. 

"Professor Byrne!" Dumbledore stood, a smile on his face as he greeted the woman. "I see you were able to make dinner after all." 

"Headmaster. I do apologize for my late arrival. I was... delayed." She surveyed the staff table as she made her way up the center aisle slowly, removing finely crafted black leather gloves from her hands, an aura of absolute presence about her that made even the boldest remain silent. Her eyes fixed on Snape, and she paused, just shy of the end of the student tables. "What an unpleasant surprise. How did this piece of unmitigated filth make its way into Hogwarts?" Her voice was calm, even, and cold as ice. 

The students drew in a collective breath, shocked at her words, and delivery. Even the bravest of them wouldn't risk Snape's wrath by insulting him to his face. They steeled themselves, anticipating the woman's summary verbal destruction. 

Snape was silent a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was as cold, his remarks as cruel as the new professor's. "I thought Albus had done his worst with hiring riff-raff when he hired that idiot Lockheart. I see I am mistaken." 

A slight smirk briefly crossed the woman's face, before bell-like peals of laughter rose, cold and frightening for all their beauty. "You are as much a fool as ever you were." Her mirth faded, and her expression became impossibly colder. "There are many things you may come to regret, and that remark is but one in a litany. I would suggest highly you do not cross my path again, Professor Snape, unless it is in the most unavoidable situations." With that final remark, she turned, her unmistakably arrogant and chilling attitude keeping the students remarks at bay as she headed back for the doors. 

She paused before them, not bothering to turn as she spoke. "My regrets, Headmaster, but I fear I have lost my appetite for company. Good evening." 

*** 

Draco watched the new professor leave, a slight, smug smirk on his face. After the feast, he waited only long enough to discharge his duty to get the first-year Slytherins to the dorms before he made his way up to the DADA classroom, and the office behind it. He knocked sharply, three times in rapid succession, then paused, knocking once more. 

"Come in, Draco. And shut the door behind you." The cool voice of the professor was muffled by the door, but Draco heard her clearly anyway, only opening the door enough for him to slip through before closing it softly. The lock clicked as the woman who stood next to the window flicked her wand, then waved the sixth year further in, to the chairs that sat in front of the fireplace. 

As she emerged from the shadows to sit in one of the chairs, her appearance was markedly different to his eyes from what the others had seen earlier. Her hair was not the inky black braid that fell to her waist, but a platinum blond mass now held precariously on top of her head by a pair of silver hairsticks, and her eyes were a pale, icy blue instead of the pools of impenetrable black they'd appeared to be. She smiled slightly, leaning back into the welcoming comfort of the chair. 

"I am beginning to regret this venture, nephew of mine." Her voice was tired, with an underlying hint of strain. "I did not think it would be so hard to see that damned idiot again." 

Draco shrugged, sitting at her feet instead of in the offered chair, looking into the fire as he leaned against her knee. It was a habit from when he was a young boy, and had sat at her feet to listen to her spin stories for him and his cousin. "And if he is the traitor the Dark Lord has been hunting for, you get the honor of killing him, Aunt Vicky." He paused, a slight frown on his face. "Though I will be rather annoyed if he is. I've had a rather privileged position as his favorite student, and I'm rather loath to give that up, even briefly, in order to break in a new head of house." 

There was a soft chuckle from behind him, and Draco turned his head to look up at his aunt. She was looking down at him, her eyes a bit warmed by amusement as her one hand came to rest on his head, stroking his hair. "My dear nephew, you are still young. Politics can be played, and I rather doubt you'd be upset with me becoming head of your house." 

Draco turned back to the fireplace, a smirk on his face as he shook his head slightly, just beginning to relax when there was a tap at the window, drawing a sigh of annoyance from his aunt. He looked up at her, and she nodded. He stood to go to the window, taking the message bound to the leg of the black owl just before it flew off again, and closed the window before returning to the fireplace. 

Victoria took the parchment from him, and cast a silencing ward around the area nearest the fireplace before she opened it. Her eyes quickly scanned it, and she handed it to Draco to read after she was done, and he perused it as swiftly as she had done, before tossing it into the flame, and watching it burn. That had become habit and policy with most Death Eaters, no matter what the correspondence, even among family. 

"That was certainly not what I was expecting. Truly, I hoped my brother would be a little more circumspect about what he does in front of the Ministry. It doesn't matter, afterall, that they are fools, they can still kill you." 

Draco was still staring into the fire, standing there in shock. His continued silence drew a sharp look from his aunt, followed by a soft sigh. 

"He will be fine, Draco. Lucius has always had an extraordinary amount of luck on his side. It's kept him alive so far... though barely." 

Draco shook his head. "After he spend that month in Azkaban, before holding him became a serious political liability, he hasn't been the same. Mum's worried that even that short stint there has driven him over the edge." 

His aunt indicated the empty chair. "Sit. I will get you a cup of tea." She paused as she summoned over the necessary items for tea. "There is a deeper plan here, I'm sure. I do not know what it is, as I am not privy to it, but I would well know if your father was truly insane. I wouldn't have this job if he was, because I'd be hard pressed to keep my own sanity." A wry smile crossed her face. "The disadvantage of being twins, you can say." 

Draco nodded, accepting a cup of tea from her. He sipped the hot drink, the two falling silent as both drank, and enjoyed the silence. As he drained the cup, Draco glanced at the time. "I should leave, at least pretend to make my prefect rounds." 

"Or someone might think something's amiss. Of course, nephew mine. Appearences do mean quite a bit. I shall be seeing you in class tomorrow, and remember that there I am your professor, not your aunt, not even someone you've met before." 

Draco smirked. "Of course." 

*** 

Author's Note: Please let me know what you think of the story. You can email me comments and questions at captainisabellaraven@yahoo.com as well as leaving a review here. And if you'd like updates on all my fics, or to get a chance to read the new chapters and stories before anyone else, join my mailing list at . Thank you! - Isabella/Morgyn 


	2. The Trouble With Children

After Draco slipped back out, Raeyne leaned back into the chair again, closing her eyes briefly. One hand curled loosely around the tea cup, and the other rested in her lap, her fingers lax. She appeared the picture of exhausted teacher, though that was not as near the truth as one might think. Exhausted, perhaps, but not likely, not for those who knew her well. 

"Well, Victoria, you've gotten yourself in a right ruddy mess this time." Her voice was quiet in the empty room, her eyes still closed. "Your brother has gone and royally screwed the pooch this time, and it isn't even going to keep their attention diverted long enough for plans to fall into place. You ever were the right fool, Lucy dear." 

_*And you are any better?*_ The annoyed thought slithered across her own. _*You fell for that traitor, Snape.*_

"Dear Lord, don't remind me." Raeyne groaned, trying to forget the last memory she had of Snape before she'd entered the great hall that evening. 

*** 

_"You're still playing the slut, as ever, Raeyne. Still playing for the highest coin." Severus's sneer sliced into her heart as deeply as his words. She hid it well, simply glaring back at him as he continued to shread her verbally. "What did he buy you with? Jewelry? Perhaps a nice little addition to the Byrne lands? Or did he simply buy you off like a cheap whore, with simple galleons?" They both knew who Ôhe' was, and Raeyne hissed back, her tone biting and acidic. _

"You sodding son of a bitch. As if I would ever sleep with Lucius! It would be like fucking my brother, if I had one." She still couldn't tell him, her pride still stinging from her supposed parents lies after all these years. "Damnation, Severus, the only man I ever slept with is you, and you should know that!" 

"How can I trust you?" His eyes held more than a hint of angered betrayal. "You've been sneaking around behind my back to go see Malfoy, and I've seen the glances you two pass back and forth!" 

"Christssake, Severus, you're being paranoid! If I'd ever known you would be so fucking jelous of a mere friend, I never would have seen you after that first dinner!" She whirled, stalking to the doors, his soft, silky voice stopping her as she reached the door. 

"Is he only a Ômere friend', Raeyne?" 

She turned back, her eyes flashing with anger. "You've already judged him, Severus. What in hell can I say to change your mind?" She left, slamming the heavy doors of the library behind her before she fled the Snape family home, leaving everything she had been given by him behind. Including the tiny diamond ring he'd given her only three months earlier when he'd asked her to marry him. 

*** 

"Good God, Vicky," muttered Lucius softly as he caught the memory surfacing in his twin's mind. It had only been recently they'd found the twin bond worked for something other than knowning where the other was, and sometimes it was still a pain. He'd almost give anything to not have some of the mental images he'd gotten from when his sister was remembering things. Or some of her odder dreams. 

_*What?* There was a snappish tone to her thoughts that she normally had when she was tired and in a bad mood. _

"You never told me he asked you to marry him." 

_*And until he became a possessive, jelous son of a bitch, I was even going to go through with it. Pity I thought it might happen. Otherwise I'd not have a number of problems.*_

Lucius raised an eyebrow, knowing what at least one of those problems was. Actually, that problem was the reason he was sitting in a Ministry holding cell right now. "Speaking of problems, Vicky, dear, it's your daughter that has me in this mess." 

_*Hmm? I was under the impression you were being a complete idiot in full view of... oh dear God, she didn't?*_ There was a flash of sheer rage with an intensity that always made Lucius wonder if perhaps there had been something his mother hadn't told him. _*Oh, come off it, Lucy. If it wasn't clear twenty bloody years ago that I am clearly a Malfoy - well, clearly when you are related to me and can see under that god-awful illusion that I've still to figure out how to unravel. Brilliant, our parents, yes, but damned annoying this is. But you distracted me. Juno pulling her tearful waif routine again?*_

"Of course. And the little brat..." 

_*My daughter is not a brat. She is simply difficult.* _

"As I was saying, the little brat told them I had kidnapped her..." Lucius nearly growled when a stream of curses both creative and vindictive cut him off, though he suspected not all were aimed at him. 

_*I will be down to London as quickly as I can grab a cloak and get off the grounds. Christssake, is that girl going to get it. I do not need this right now, life is quite complicated enough as it is.*__ There was more muttering at the back of his mind, but Lucius ignored it as the door was opened to let in Narcissa, her expression none too pleased. _

She did have the courtasy to wait until the door was closed before she spoke. "What have you gotten yourself into now, Lucius? We can't afford another scandal like the one last year." She sat across from him, her eyes narrowed with anger. 

Lucius silently asked what he did to deserve this, and got a dry comment back that he was the one who'd married her. "That was not helpful, Vicky," he muttered under his breath, drawing a worried glance from Narcissa. 

"Lucius, dear, are you feeling quite all right? We'll get you home on the reason you are obviously not in your right mind, and...." 

"Damnation, woman, I'm not insane." Lucius glared at her, as Vicky chortled in the back of his mind. She did find some of the oddest things funny. 

_*Of course you're not insane, Lucy. You just never told her you're beginning to pick up my thoughts, and a good deal of what I say, anymore than you told her that you call me Vicky. And it works the other way, I might add, so I do wonder how we've managed to both stay sane.*_

"I'm not sure you are sane, Vicky." His temper was rapidly fraying at this point, and if someone didn't do something to get him out of here, and away from the two women who seemed bent on driving him to St. Mungo's, it would quite probably snap. 

Narcissa regarded him oddly a moment longer, before leaving again, watching him warily as she left. He was certain she was about to tell them he was not in his right mind, and perhaps they should commit him to St. Moungo's. 

*** 

Raeyne stepped out of her office, swirling her cloak around her. She'd have to pick up her daughter from the Ministry, and make sure Lucius got out without being sent to St. Mungo's, and all of this without letting anyone know where she was going. 

She made it out of the castle without incident, hurrying to the edge of the grounds to Apparate directly to the Ministry, impatiently making her way to the front desk. "Pardon me, but I have just heard that you are holding Lucius Malfoy for kidnapping my daughter?" She managed not to reach across and strangle the woman as the witch raised a startled eyebrow. "A girl rather small for her age, looks to be about twelve or thirteen at most. Blond hair and black eyes, very difficult to miss." 

"Oh, Juno. She's such a sweetie." The receptionist smiled, and she reminded herself that murdering people inside the Ministry was not a good idea. Especially her daughter when they girl had wrapped people around her little finger. "She's down in the Law Enforcement offices, I'll tell them that you're here. They were about to send an owl off to Hogwarts to contact her father, but I'm sure that won't be neccessary now." 

Raeyne had gone paler than normal at that statement, and by sheer force of will kept from casting an Unforgivable then and there. "No," she replied, her voice remakably unforced and normal sounding, considering she'd just been broadsided by a barn. "I'm sure it won't." She turned towards the elevators, familiar with the layout of the Ministry from the images she'd plucked from Lucius's mind. "I'll just go on down, if that is not a problem?" 

"Let me call ahead, and have them send someone up, Mrs..." 

"Byrne," she supplied absently, tapping her foot impatiently. 

"I'll have someone bring Juno up, Mrs Byrne." 

It wasn't very long before the elevator opened, and disgorged several people. Narcissa Malfoy had an expression of disdain on her face, and Lucius, behind her, look distinctly aggrieved by the Auror who had a firm grip on his arm. And preceding them out was a pouting girl in black robes, who glared at her mother as they brought her out. 

"Juno, what have you been up to?" Raeyne's voice was cold as ice, her eyes narrowed in anger. "I just heard you accused your godfather of kidnapping you." 

"I don't like staying there when you're away, mother. Christssake, it's boring, and all..." Juno was cut off by a sharp smack across the jaw from her mother, and her own dark eyes narrowed, her hands clenching into fists. 

"You do not need to make a scandal out of it." Her voice was now a hiss, and she siezed her daughter's arm, smiling absently in thanks to the Auror who'd brought her up. "I will not tolerate you making a spectacle out of yourself, and making a mockery of the family name, much less that of your godfather." 

"Ahem. Ma'am, if you would please sign this...?" One of the female Auror's held up a roll of parchment, and Raeyne scanned it a moment before raising an eyebrow. 

"You expect me to corraberate my daughter's outlandish tale? I can assure you, Miss, that Lucius Malfoy would never harm my daughter - his goddaughter - in any way. Take her story for what it is. The ravings of a teenager who wants nothing more than to make a bit of mischeif for everyone." 

"But, ma'am... He's a known Death Eater..." 

Raeyne cut her off with a cold glare. "I do not care what you think you can prove. I will not have my daughter's name or my own dragged in such a scandal as you and she seemed to be determined to cook up. Good evening." She turned, stalking towards the door with Juno's arm firmly in her grasp. Only once they were outside did she pause, waiting for the Malfoys to catch up with them. "Juno Arabelle Malfoy, what in God's name have been doing?" Her voice was a low, and dangerously soft tone as she looked down at her daughter, anger flashing in her eyes. 

Juno merely glared back, trying to yank her arm out of her mother's grip. "I won't stay there, mother! I don't like Uncle Lucius, and Aunt Narcissa hates me as much as I hate her. Why can't stay at home with the house-elves? It would be far more enjoyable..." 

"I do not care what you think would be enjoyable. To leave you alone would be irrespossible, and the it would create is not something I will have blackening the family name. You will remain with your uncle and your aunt until I return from Hogwarts in June. And you will listen to them, and to your tutor, and you will not cause anymore trouble like you have this evening." The towering fury lit her eyes with an unholy light, and Juno pouted, her expression sullen. "Is that clear, Juno?" 

"As crystal." Juno's reply was forced and irritable, her lower lip stuck out in a pout as Lucius and Narcissa emerged from the Ministry. The raised eyebrow that Lucius favored Raeyne with told her he had heard every word she'd said to Juno. She merely shrugged in way of reply. 

"I shall entrust my daughter to your care once more, Lucius. I trust that she will not have the chance this time to cause any more of the trouble she has this evening?" Her voice was cool, and there was barely a trace of the anger that had been there seconds before the couple had followed mother and daughter out into the night. 

"There will be no trouble, Raeyne." Lucius nodded, his hand coming to rest on Juno's shoulder. "I apologize for calling you out so late in the evening to deal with this matter, but you are aware of the Ministry's opinion of me." 

"Of course. I wish a good evening, Lucius. And I will see you during the Christmas holiday, as usual." 

"As always, Raeyne. Good night." 

****** 

Author's Note: And thank you to JessieRose for reviewing. I will try to have another chapter up in about a week or so, depending on RL, and the other stories I'm working on. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as the last one! 


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